Between Saturday Night Live‘s latest sketch targeting President-elect Donald Trump, which imagined the appointment of Breaking Bad‘s Walter White as head of the DEA, and Trump’s actual selection of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the secretary of state gig, it’s hard to believe what is — and isn’t — fake news these days. Like a New York Times report announcing former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s Monday meeting with Trump, and the rumor that the two would be discussing her possible appointment as the director of national intelligence.
No seriously, the NYT reported this morning that former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Ted Cruz’s one-time running mate is up for the job:
Mr. Trump will meet on Monday with Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, to discuss the job of director of national intelligence, a senior transition official said.
That the Trump transition team is currently mulling over an intelligence post in the midst of the Republican backlash against a CIA report identifying Russia’s involvement in America’s 2016 presidential election is telling. Hence why reporters gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City were ready to pepper Fiorina with questions about the report and its implications as soon as she walked off the elevator. Lucky for them, she broached the topic herself.
.@CarlyFiorina on memorabilia in Trump office: “I was particularly taken by @Shaq O’Neal’s shoe, which is huge.” Also talks #China and more. pic.twitter.com/n4DlqlenOF
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 12, 2016
“We then got down to more serious business and spent a fair amount of time talking about China, as probably our most important adversary,” said Fiorina in what sounded more like a prepared statement than an off-the-cuff remark. “We talked about hacking, whether it’s Chinese hacking or purported Russian hacking. We talked about the opportunity that the president-elect has to literally reset things. To reset the trajectory of this economy, to reset the role of government, to reset America’s role in the world and how we’re perceived in [it]. I think it’s why he’s getting such fantastic people in his administration.”
As Mediaite notes, Fiorina’s emphasis on China’s being America’s “most important adversary” and the “purported” character of the Russian hack requires attention. After all, since the president-elect’s ill-advised phone call with the Taiwanese president, U.S. and Chinese relations haven’t been all that great. The eastern super power lodged a formal complaint following Trump’s telephone chat, then flew a long-range nuclear-capable bomber over the South China Sea as a “show of force.”
(Via New York Times, Mediaite and C-SPAN)